Investigative journalism? *snort*

I'm sure the intrepid, ink-stained scribes at The Ottawa Citizen are trying. Really. But I had to laugh out loud at their latest effort at Seriously Breathless Investigative Reporting^TM:

GardaWorld, another publicly traded British firm, was hired by the United Nations to provide security advice and logistical support during the 2005 Afghan parliamentary elections.

UN employees were under tight security restrictions over where they could travel, so GardaWorld did much of the support work, said Danny Matthews, the company's manager in Afghanistan.

Just because a company has British employees and locations doesn't make it a British firm, last I checked.

In fact, I'd hardly call a company headquartered in Montreal a British firm. From the GardaWorld website, which can be accessed through that high-powered, but exclusive and complex tool of investigative journalism, Google:

We are proud to be a part of the Garda family of companies, which offers clients a comprehensive suite of consulting and investigation, physical security, cash logistics, and background screening services. Garda employs 50,000 professionals and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

Note also that the company's shares are traded on the TSX, under the symbol GW.

Shadowy security firms indeed, hiding in plain sight a couple of hours up the road from the sleuths at The Citizen.